Philippine indios served in the Spanish armies in the thousands in expeditions of conquest and defense across Spain’s Pacific possessions, often significantly outnumbering their Spanish counterparts. Based on detailed archival evidence presented for the first time, this article extends the previously limited nature of our understanding of indigenous soldiers in the Spanish Pacific, focusing in particular on the problem of what motivated indigenous people to join the Spanish military. The existing historiography of reward structures among indigenous elites is here coupled with an analysis of the way in which military service intersected with other forms of coerced labor among nonelite Philippine indios. An understanding of pre-Hispanic cultures of warfare and debt servitude helps make the case that many indigenous soldiers were pushed into military service as a way of paying off debts or to avoid other forms of forced labor. Thus indigenous participation in the empire was always tenuous and on the brink of breaking down.

中文翻译：

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菲律宾印第安人为帝国服务：土著士兵和特遣队忠诚度，1600-1700

数以千计的菲律宾印第安人在西班牙军队中服役，在西班牙太平洋领土上进行征服和防御的远征，数量往往远远超过西班牙同行。本文基于首次提供的详细档案证据，扩展了我们之前对西班牙太平洋土著士兵的理解的有限性质，特别关注是什么促使土著人加入西班牙军队的问题。现有的土著精英奖励结构史与菲律宾非精英印第安人之间的兵役与其他形式的强迫劳动交叉方式的分析相结合。对前西班牙战争和债务奴役文化的理解有助于证明许多土著士兵被迫服兵役以偿还债务或避免其他形式的强迫劳动。因此，土著对帝国的参与总是脆弱的，处于崩溃的边缘。